Beginner FPV Racing
- Thread starter WERA22
- Start date
Glad to hear my list help! Sorry I havent been on the forums sooner to help out more, but it looks like you got everything going.
Happy flying and keep posting those videos. One thing I regret was not taking more videos of my progress as a pilot. Initially I was shakey and couldnt even fly under a soccer goal post without cringing, now Im flying 40+ mph through gates no larger than 3 feet wide.
WERA22
Member
I sell airplanes for a living so most of those models are ones that we get from the manufacturers. They are pretty cool.
My Tiny Whoop has been SO FUN. I am getting better with it. I flew it a bunch outside last night. It has a few weird things. Every once in a while it kinda gets a mind of its own and wobbles or zips a little bit with no control input. Do you have any ideas? It is not enough to make it crash but it is disconcerting.
I'm also still learning the goggles. I finally have them set up where they work well with the Tiny Whoop and the simulator. With my mini quad I am still having trouble seeing well. The other two are the same image for the right and left eye but on the big quad it is like an overlapping wide screen. Is there something I am doing wrong?
Thanks again for all of your help. I wouldn't have made it this far without a little encouragement. It is hard to figure this stuff out on your own!
My Tiny Whoop has been SO FUN. I am getting better with it. I flew it a bunch outside last night. It has a few weird things. Every once in a while it kinda gets a mind of its own and wobbles or zips a little bit with no control input. Do you have any ideas? It is not enough to make it crash but it is disconcerting.
I'm also still learning the goggles. I finally have them set up where they work well with the Tiny Whoop and the simulator. With my mini quad I am still having trouble seeing well. The other two are the same image for the right and left eye but on the big quad it is like an overlapping wide screen. Is there something I am doing wrong?
Thanks again for all of your help. I wouldn't have made it this far without a little encouragement. It is hard to figure this stuff out on your own!
Are both of your antennas on the quad and goggles the same polarization? Using Right Hand Polarized antenna with a RH hand? Also double check that you are 100% on the same channel when flying the quad. And the two overlapping screens things sounds like you need to adjust the pupil distance of the two screens. On the bottom of your goggles are sliders that move the lens closer and farther apart.
WERA22
Member
I thought I should give an update.
I flew the big quad last night in acro mode on fpv for the first time. I managed to not tear anything up and did a couple of aileron rolls and stuff. I still feel clumsy with it but I'm getting the idea.
I've been flying out at the AMA national headquarters. They have huge fields and it is almost empty during the week. Last night I ran into a couple of other guys with high performance quads. That was really fun and they were nice. They had seen me flying and found my fpv channel and watched from "on-board". It was a little embarrassing since I have no idea what I'm doing but they were nice about it. haha
On to my latest questions if anyone feels like helping. I still have some chirping from the motors. I have done some PID tuning with the help of Youtube. Guys were saying that high D can cause this. I set all D's to zero and still had the noise although it wasn't as pronounced. I have it tuned better than it was and the chirping is less, so I'm not sure what to do next. It seems like it is a tuning issue and not a mechanical one. I'm also looking for a video or instruction on how to fly more smoothly. I feel like I don't have a great grasp of the controls. I have about 6000 hours of flying real airplanes and some of what I know about aircraft translates and some of it doesn't.
Thanks for sticking with my saga. Everyone who said to just start out with a 250 sized quad with 4S batteries was dead on the money. I would have outgrown anything else almost immediately. I just ordered 4 more more batteries so I can practice more!
I flew the big quad last night in acro mode on fpv for the first time. I managed to not tear anything up and did a couple of aileron rolls and stuff. I still feel clumsy with it but I'm getting the idea.
I've been flying out at the AMA national headquarters. They have huge fields and it is almost empty during the week. Last night I ran into a couple of other guys with high performance quads. That was really fun and they were nice. They had seen me flying and found my fpv channel and watched from "on-board". It was a little embarrassing since I have no idea what I'm doing but they were nice about it. haha
On to my latest questions if anyone feels like helping. I still have some chirping from the motors. I have done some PID tuning with the help of Youtube. Guys were saying that high D can cause this. I set all D's to zero and still had the noise although it wasn't as pronounced. I have it tuned better than it was and the chirping is less, so I'm not sure what to do next. It seems like it is a tuning issue and not a mechanical one. I'm also looking for a video or instruction on how to fly more smoothly. I feel like I don't have a great grasp of the controls. I have about 6000 hours of flying real airplanes and some of what I know about aircraft translates and some of it doesn't.
Thanks for sticking with my saga. Everyone who said to just start out with a 250 sized quad with 4S batteries was dead on the money. I would have outgrown anything else almost immediately. I just ordered 4 more more batteries so I can practice more!
PsyBorg
Wake up! Time to fly!
Most of your smoothness will come from setting your rates up to do what you want. With the way kiss does things as well as beta flight you can get REALLY smooth but very responsive settings. Then you tune from there. If you want I can suggest the ones I fly with as they work well no matter what I fly from my Gremlin to my Alien to the new 100 mph quad I am working on.
Chirping can be several different things. If it chirps when lifting off or stutters them that is a symptom of too low idle. if it chirps on straight line punch outs that is a sign your props are slipping or in certain cases TPA not being right for what you are doing. If it chirps in turns or hard maneuvers it can be pid settings. If you are getting chirping more then likely since you say your "Sloppy" (sign P gains are too low) means P gains are too low and D is either too high to compensate or P gains are low enough D gains have nothing to work with and are not even in the picture yet.
Here is a screen shot of my Gremlin set up on Beta flight. The rates are what I use on all my quads. Don't try the pids however as they are for a grossly over weight Gremlin back when I had huge video system and fatty battery on it at 187 g All up weight. These rates are extremely smooth at center stick then pretty snappy at full deflection. The super high yaw with no expo makes turns very tight and precise at high speeds but still smooth and responsive on slow flight.
Get your rates dialed in first then start tuning.
This is the video that got pids to click in my head.
This is a different method that works as well but he does not take P gains as tight as I prefer.
Chirping can be several different things. If it chirps when lifting off or stutters them that is a symptom of too low idle. if it chirps on straight line punch outs that is a sign your props are slipping or in certain cases TPA not being right for what you are doing. If it chirps in turns or hard maneuvers it can be pid settings. If you are getting chirping more then likely since you say your "Sloppy" (sign P gains are too low) means P gains are too low and D is either too high to compensate or P gains are low enough D gains have nothing to work with and are not even in the picture yet.
Here is a screen shot of my Gremlin set up on Beta flight. The rates are what I use on all my quads. Don't try the pids however as they are for a grossly over weight Gremlin back when I had huge video system and fatty battery on it at 187 g All up weight. These rates are extremely smooth at center stick then pretty snappy at full deflection. The super high yaw with no expo makes turns very tight and precise at high speeds but still smooth and responsive on slow flight.
Get your rates dialed in first then start tuning.
This is the video that got pids to click in my head.
This is a different method that works as well but he does not take P gains as tight as I prefer.
WERA22
Member
I finally figured out how to record on my goggle's DVR. I still suck but I can at least fly it around and not crash. I also can fly in acro mode all the time now, so I'm considering that a victory.
Thanks for the PID videos above. I had already watched both of them but it's nice to know I was on the right track. I think I have a motor that is damaged or something. I can't get rid of the chirping and now it vibrates some. You might be able to see it in the video. I replaced the props and it made no difference. I think I will soon order the parts to build another quad. I know I could do A LOT better this time.
WERA22
Member
I tried that. I also tried lowering D to zero. Then I tried raising P till crazy things happened. Then I tried a bunch of stuff in between. It doesn't seem to make a difference in the chirping. It actually does seem to make tiny differences but nothing major. The chirping I get seems to be most prevalent in coordinated turns. I don't get much during hover or punch out or anything like that.
One thing I haven't thought of until now. I wonder if I should try to flash the firmware on my ESC's? When I was working on this initially I had no idea what I was doing. I'm not sure what I accomplished or what I didn't. I'm not even sure if I used the BLHeli or the KISS software to do it. Can you even flash ESC's through KISS if they aren't KISS ESC's?
One thing I haven't thought of until now. I wonder if I should try to flash the firmware on my ESC's? When I was working on this initially I had no idea what I was doing. I'm not sure what I accomplished or what I didn't. I'm not even sure if I used the BLHeli or the KISS software to do it. Can you even flash ESC's through KISS if they aren't KISS ESC's?
PsyBorg
Wake up! Time to fly!
Chirping in cornering? I had / have an issue with my newest build where it literally torques so hard it loosens nylon lock nuts and my left rear prop keeps sliding in place if I am not on top of it all the time. Check to be sure your props are not sliding even with tight nutz. I am going to try some low profile ones so there is more locking on the threads.
WERA22
Member
I thought it would be fun to update this thread. I am still flying this original quad. It has survived some spectacular crashes and I've only had to do a little rebuilding. I have since built another 5" (Speed Addict), 2 Whoops, a Gremlin and I am working on a 6" that I accidentally let the magic smoke out of last night. I have the parts for another 5" where I am going to try dRonin but I'm going to wait a bit on that. For anyone else considering starting in this hobby, you just have to dive in. There will be setbacks and broken frames and smoking esc's and it will cost more than you expect. You just have to take that as part of the fun!
Here is a crappy DVR recording of a flight from earlier this week. It's nothing great but I can actually fly, not crash and have some fun.
Here is a crappy DVR recording of a flight from earlier this week. It's nothing great but I can actually fly, not crash and have some fun.
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